NSW Liberal leader promises payroll tax cuts and new Western Sydney city deal
Kellie Sloane used her first budget response speech since taking office as NSW Liberal leader last year to push a pro-business agenda based on significant payroll tax cuts and promise a new Western Sydney city deal that would include progress on building a metro for south-west Sydney.
Speaking after Chancellor of the Exchequer Daniel Mookhey delivered Labor’s fourth and final full budget ahead of next year’s state election on Tuesday, Sloane also announced the Coalition will freeze developer contributions for new housing projects until June 30 to increase feasibility, pushing payment from project approval to completion.
Sloane opened his speech by quoting US rapper Eminem’s 2002 song lose yourself – “If you had one chance to get everything you wanted / Would you grab it or would it slip away?” – Attacking the Minns government for what he described as a lack of vision.
After the budget, the president of the Australian Medical Association’s NSW division, Dr. Included in the criticism of Fred Betros, Betros accused the government of reducing hospital infrastructure funds compared to previous budgets. He also criticized the way Labor was managing the economy, pointing out stagnant economic growth figures which he said were the result of the war in the Middle East and rising interest rates.
“This budget is a step back to reality,” Sloane said.
“Our gross domestic product is growing one per cent slower than Victoria’s and is growing slower than our population growth, effectively putting us in per capita recession. Business confidence is at an all-time low.”
Ahead of the speech, the Coalition announced it would withdraw from an earlier bipartisan agreement to implement the state’s clean energy roadmap, halting progress on the New England Renewable Energy Region. He also announced that he would raise the payroll tax threshold from $1.2 million to $1.5 million and reduce the rate from 5.45 percent to 4.75 percent for businesses with payroll expenses under $10 million.
The Opposition has not said how it will make up for the revenue lost from the payroll tax cut, but Labor has said it believes it will cost about $3 billion over four years.
Trailing in the polls, Sloane’s Coalition has sought to contrast the previous government’s major infrastructure agenda with that of Labour’s, which avoided major new rail or road construction amid high inflation in a bid to reduce government debt.
But on Thursday Sloane said the Coalition would seek to sign a new Western Sydney City Deal with the federal government, similar to the agreement signed between former premier Gladys Berejiklian and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2018.
He said the deal would help build new roads, schools and hospitals, as well as “continue metro construction by developing a metro for south-west Sydney”.
Such a deal would require cooperation from the Albanian government and would likely require billions of dollars in new funding. The cost of three metro projects in Sydney has increased by more than $6 billion due to disputes with contractors, skyrocketing construction expenses and design and scope changes.
He also said the Coalition would ensure that at least 25 per cent of new infrastructure spending would be allocated to the state’s regional areas.
“NSW cannot afford to stall,” he said. “We must continue to plan and build.”
As the government continues to struggle to meet lofty housing deal targets, Sloane announced the Coalition will freeze housing contribution tax until 30 June and shift payment from project approval to completion. He said the policy, requested by the developer lobby and considered by the government ahead of the budget, would “reduce upfront costs and increase the viability of the project”.
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